Manet summered at Gennevilliers in 1874, often spending time with Monet and Renoir across the Seine at Argenteuil, where Boating was painted. Beyond adopting the lighter touch and palette of his younger Impressionist colleagues, Manet exploits the broad planes of color and strong diagonals of Japanese prints to give inimitable form to this scene of outdoor leisure. Rodolphe Leenhoff, the artist’s brother-in-law, is thought to have posed for the sailor but the identity of the woman is uncertain.

Shown in the Salon of 1879, Boating was deemed "the last word in painting" by Mary Cassatt, who recommended the acquisition to the New York collectors Louisine and H.O. Havemeyer.

Bertall. "L'exposition de M. Manet." Paris-Journal (April 30, 1876), p. 9?, refers to it as the "Canotier avec cette canotière," noting that it was in an exhibition of Manet's work in 1876, and remarking that it was not included in the Salon of 1875.

Maria Deraismes. Letter to Édouard Manet. May 5, 1876, notes that it was included in an exhibition held by Manet in 1876 and praises it very highly.

Édouard Manet. Letter to Stéphane Mallarmé. May 8, 1879 [postmark] [published in Juliet Wilson-Bareau, "Manet by Himself, Correspondence & Conversation: Paintings, Pastels, Prints & Drawings," Boston, 1991, p. 186], complains about the way his works, including this one, have been hung at the Salon.

A. Tabarant. Manet, histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931, pp. 264–65, no. 215, agrees with the identification of the man as Rudolphe Leenhoff and notes that the woman has not yet been identified; reprints contemporary criticism.

Paul Colin. Édouard Manet. Paris, 1932, pp. 42, 74, lists it with works painted in the summer and fall of 1874, but dates it 1875.

K. R. Gallas. Letter to the Director of the MMA. May 15, 1934, suggests that the man is Guy de Maupassant.

Loan Exhibition of Paintings Celebrating the Opening of the Margaret Eaton Gallery and The East Gallery. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of Toronto. Toronto, 1935, pp. 29, 38, no. 181, ill., notes that it was painted before 1879.

Jacques-Émile Blanche. Portraits of a Lifetime: The Late Victorian Era, The Edwardian Pageant, 1870–1914. [reprint; 1st ed. 1937]. 1938, p. 39, identifies the man as Baron Barbier, a friend of Guy de Maupassant.

Margaretta M. Salinger. "Notes." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 5 (March 1947), p. 172, ill. (overall and detail on cover), notes that it was painted in the summer of 1874 in Argenteuil, at about the same time as "Argenteuil" (RW221); identifies the man as Rudolf Leenhoff and suggests that the woman is Manet's wife and his sister, Suzanne Leenhoff.

Fiske Kimball and Lionello Venturi. Great Paintings in America. New York, 1948, pp. 180–81, no. 83, ill. (color), dates it 1874 and agrees with the idenfication of the sitters as Madame Manet and her brother, Rodolphe Leenhoff; calls this more daring than "Argenteuil" (RW221), which was executed at about the same time, and notes that these works marked a turning point in the style of Manet; comments that Monet liked to paint on a boat, which he called his "studio," and that Manet painted Monet and Madame Monet twice on this boat, but left both sketches unfinished, suggesting that they were the first idea for this picture (RW218 and 219).

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961, p. 225, calls it "Marine"; states that Mary Cassatt referred to it as "the last word in painting" and that Manet painted it in a couple of days, just after he finished his prolonged work on "Argenteuil" (RW221).

Anne Coffin Hanson. Édouard Manet, 1832–1883. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1966, pp. 142–43, 145, no. 125, fig. 125 (overall and detail), notes that the higher point of view and the cut-off boat and sail are highly reminiscent of the style of many Japanese prints.

George Heard Hamilton. "Is Manet Still 'Modern'?" Art News Annual 31 (1966), p. 162, dates it 1875; comments that the lack of a horizon shows the influence of Japanese art.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. "XIX–XX Centuries." French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 3, New York, 1967, pp. 45–47, ill., date it summer of 1874.

Alain De Leiris. The Drawings of Édouard Manet. Berkeley, 1969, p. 125, under no. 429, publishes a drawing related to this work and suggests that the drawing published by Mathey [see Ref. 1961] is a copy by another hand.

Charles S. Moffett inImpressionism: A Centenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1974, pp. 124–26, no. 22, ill. (color) [French ed., "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," Paris, 1974], comments that pentimenti and x-rays reveal that originally the man at the tiller held the rope in his right hand but that "by altering the direction of the rope Manet removed a cue to logical perspective and thereby further emphasized the flatness of the picture space".

Theodore Reff. "Review of Rouart and Wildenstein 1975." Art Bulletin 58 (December 1976), p. 637, states that the two sketches reproduced by Rouart and Wildenstein [see Ref. 1975, nos. 400 and 401] are copies by another hand.

Bernard Dorival in "Ukiyo-e and European Painting." Dialogue in Art: Japan and the West. New York, 1976, p. 36, fig. 18 (color).

T. A. Gronberg. Manet: A Retrospective. New York, 1990, p. 15, colorpl. 66, notes that Manet began working on this in August 1874.

Norma Broude. "A World of Light: France and the International Impressionist Movement, 1860–1920." World Impressionism: The International Movement, 1860–1920. New York, 1990, p. 28, colorpl. 26.

Robert Rosenblum. "Friedrichs from Russia: An Introduction." The Romantic Vision of Caspar David Friedrich: Paintings and Drawings from the U.S.S.R. New York, 1990, pp. 12–13, fig. 13, compares it to Friedrich's "On the Sailboat" (State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad) of 1818–19.

Nigel Blake Francis Frascina in "Modern Practices of Art and Modernity." Modernity and Modernism: French Painting in the Nineteenth Century. New Haven, 1993, pp. 115, 118, pl. 106, compares it with Manet's "Argenteuil" (RW221), which depicts the same male model, Rodolphe Leenhoff; states that Leenhoff's clothing (white shirt, white flannel trousers, and straw boater with blue border) is that of the prestigious "Cercle nautique", whose headquarters were at Asnières.

Alan Krell. Manet and the Painters of Contemporary Life. London, 1996, pp. 134, 179, colorpl. 122, discusses the gaze of the man and woman, noting that her gaze runs along the surface of the canvas, accentuating the flatness and two-dimensionality of the picture.

Eliza E. Rathbone inImpressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party". Exh. cat., Phillips Collection. Washington, 1996, pp. 28–30, 34, 41, colorpl. 27, compares it to Manet's "Argentueil" (RW221), noting that the pair in the MMA picture is a "couple of superior social station"; comments on the striking newness of the composition, which may explain Manet's five year wait before submitting it to the Salon of 1879; mentions that this work inspired Renoir's "Girl in a Boat" (private collection) of 1877.

Colin B. Bailey in Colin B. Bailey. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. New Haven, 1997, p. 130, identifies the woman as Suzanne Leenhoff, noting that the bonnet worn here is the same one she wore in "On the Beach" (RW188).

Manet painted this work in Argenteuil in the summer of 1874, shortly after completing "Argenteuil" (RW221; Musée de Beaux-Arts, Tournai). The man has been identified as Rodolphe Leenhoff, the Dutch painter and Manet's brother-in-law. The identity of the woman has remained a mystery.

The man's right hand originally held the sheet, and traces of this position are still evident on the water and the boat. [see Ref. Stang 1972]

There are two studies for the head of the woman [see Refs. Mathey 1961, Leiris 1969, and Reff 1976].